


the waning heartbloom

by Blue_Rive



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Gen, M/M, POV Alternating, Seriously I love him so much, ethari may be ooc, ethari swears, even if you don't ship any of the ships it's really a gen fic so you can still read it, gren Does Not Approve, i'm writing him as a chaotic gay disaster idiot, in this house we love and appreciate commander gren, minor elf ocs with too many aas in their names, season 3 spoilers!!, the poly ship was gonna be highkey but then i remembered i can only write gen, the signature blue rive blend of fluff angst and humor, they're all r lowkey even runaan/ethari, this fanfiction written by the ETHARI LOOK IN THE FUCKING WATER gang
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-05
Updated: 2019-12-05
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:40:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21678388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blue_Rive/pseuds/Blue_Rive
Summary: Late at night, Ethari notices something glowing in the water. Meanwhile, Gren is trying his hardest to help Runaan.
Relationships: Gren & Ethari, Gren & Runaan (The Dragon Prince), Runaan/Ethari (The Dragon Prince), lowkey Gren/Runaan/Ethari
Comments: 24
Kudos: 321





	the waning heartbloom

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nutella0Mutt](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nutella0Mutt/gifts).



> eTHARI LOOK IN THE FUCKING WATER

Ethari noticed it at night, two weeks after Rayla had left, when the moon was high in the sky. 

He was sitting next to the lake, staring down into it. It was dark, and Rayla’s flower bloomed with a brilliant light, shining like a beacon. 

He’d seen it as too bright, when they’d died, blazing tauntingly like ‘that’s right, I lived and you didn’t, so  _ ha.’  _ When he’d watched them sink, losing his hope as one by one they all flickered and died.

He always sat next to the water from after he put the lotuses in to when they returned, biting at his lip in barely hidden anxiety. Moonshadow elves specialized in illusions, not just the magic kind, but hiding their feelings, telling falsehoods easy as tossing a coin in a wishing well. Ethari had never been any good at that- he’d always been painfully honest, saying whatever he was feeling. 

He didn’t want to leave, but he liked to work on things to distract himself, so he brought out a silvery knife and busied himself carving the handle. 

He was inlaying a little silver spiral in the sheath when the first light flickered. He jolted up immediately, still holding the knife- wobbles didn’t mean anything, but the light flickering was bad- it was tied to the assassin's life force, and it flickering meant they were grievously injured, soon to die. 

The lotus faltered, then sunk, and Ethari fell to his knees. It was Ram’s, and he hated the bit of the relief that he felt that it wasn’t Rayla or Runaan- he  _ knew  _ Ram, had hung out with him at Avaarne’s bakery, gossiped with him about politics and the human kingdoms and the Dragonguard. 

Another sunk, then another. So easy, not to think of them each as a person, but rather just blossoms sinking into a lake. Moonshadow elves had euphemisms for that sort of thing, ‘gave up their life’, ‘returned to Xadia’. Ethari didn’t want to shy away from it. They didn’t come back to magic or return to Xadia, and they were never going to come back. They were fucking dead.

He should call the families of the others, he knew, Avaarne and Einye and everyone, but he couldn’t bring himself to move from the bridge over the lake, clinging to the hope that Runaan’s and Rayla’s wouldn’t sink.

He’d gotten half his wish, he supposed. 

Ethari sighed, idly dipping his finger in the water and watching as his reflection dissolved into the ripples. “Wish you were here, Runi.” He laughed a bit. “You’d probably tell me to go to sleep.” 

Wait. He’d thought it was just the reflection of Rayla’s light, but now that he looked closer, there was definitely another one, waxing and waning in and out. Was it another lotus? But how? It looked like Runaan’s color-

Ethari leaned forward to get a better look- and slipped, falling forwards and landing in the water with a splash. 

_ Truly a poised Moonshadow elf,  _ he thought ruefully,  _ ever graceful.  _

He floundered in the water, trying to get his footing. His foot brushed against cold metal, and he firmly decided not to think about the fact that it was probably one of the dead assassin’s flowers. It was slippery, and he fell backwards, head dipping underwater and coming up sputtering. Great, now his hair was all wet. 

He heard the other elf before he saw them, briefly registering their footsteps before they reached out a hand towards him. 

He grabbed onto it and let Avaarne drag him out of the water. 

They were tall, with long horns that tapered backwards, dark blue markings, and short hair in an undercut. They’d been Ram’s best friend and were, for lack of a better word, Ethari’s next door neighbor. They also made  _ really great  _ Moonberry Surprise. 

“Decided to take a midnight swim?” they asked dryly. 

Ethari huffed. “Don’t judge, I get to fall into lakes if I want to.” 

Avaarne raised an eyebrow. Ethari felt very judged. 

“You should get some sleep,” they said. 

Ethari sighed, pushing himself to his feet. “Fine. You should, too. Don’t you have to get up at five am?” 

“I  _ was  _ sleeping,” Avaarne said, “Except then I heard just like, this strangled scream from out the window-” 

“Oh Luna, shut up. I’m going to bed.” 

He attempted to stalk aloofly to his house. This image was slightly harder to portray because he was still soaking wet and shivering.

He’d mostly forgotten about the other flower by next week- it had been late, so it felt almost like a dream, and he decided he’d probably imagined it. It wasn’t possible, anyway. How could someone be half alive and half dead at the same time? 

Avaarne tapped him on the shoulder, and he jumped. “What?”

“There’s some human walking around the illusion calling for you. He mentioned- he mentioned Runaan?” 

Ethari’s heart stopped.  _ Runaan.  _

\---

Lieutenant Gren liked to talk. Well, he supposed that made sense- it was basically his job. If he was the quiet type, that might have been awkward.

He was fine with silence, most of the time, but that was friendly silence, and he was still talking usually, just in sign language. 

He didn’t like dungeon silence, everything gone quiet like the moment before a strike, with only the drip of water somewhere to his left and the ragged breathing of the other prisoner to keep him company. 

It was natural that he’d started talking, nervously rambling, occasionally addressing the other prisoner but really just talking to himself. 

The elf never replied, anyway. Gren didn’t know much- or really, anything- about him, and most of what he did know he’d gotten from Viren, so it might be a lie. 

Name: Runaan

Occupation: King Harrow’s murderer

Race: Moonshadow elf

It was those last two things that he was getting stuck on. (That made sense. It would be weird if he got hung up on the name. Runaan was a perfectly good name. Sounded pretty, too, like it came with an accent.) He’d  _ liked  _ the king, Amaya’s brother in law. He was kind and he had a good sense of humor and he was a pretty good king, in general. And Runaan had just- snap- killed him.

Gren might have been a bit of a hypocrite. He considered himself a pacifist, sure, but he was still a soldier, even if he had a diplomatic job. He didn’t remember killing anyone, but it was all too likely that he had, and he’d let hundreds die. 

In the end, though, the moral stuff didn’t really matter. Gren was lonely, and even if Runaan wouldn’t admit it, he probably was too. So Gren talked. 

He started out asking Runaan questions, but he never answered, so Gren just started rambling, talking about himself and Amaya and Corvus. He eventually ended up just singing quietly, making up lyrics when he ran out until his voice went hoarse. 

He was in the middle of telling some anecdote about the time Amaya stole someone’s dog when they were teenagers when Runaan spoke. 

“Do you ever shut up?” 

His accent’s really pretty, not the normal Moonshadow one but something Eastern and polished, and despite the fact that he hadn’t exactly said ‘hey I like you let’s be friends,’ Gren’s still happy.

“No, I don’t,” he responded cheerfully. “Runaan, right? I’m Gren.” 

“I feel like you already told me that, at some point.” 

“Probably! I told you a lot of stuff.” 

“You… did. Why did you tell me your friends’ names, and your favorite color, and your friends’ favorite color-” 

“Conversation starter, I guess.” Gren shrugged. “What’s yours?” 

“...blue.” 

“Come on, you’re a Moonshadow elf, that’s so boring! It’s like half of you like blue, and the other half like purple. I was hoping yours would be like, hot pink or something. Or yellow. That’s  _ my  _ favorite color.” 

“I know.” 

Gren waited, but Runaan didn’t add anything else or try and keep the conversation going. 

“Strong silent type, huh? That’s cool. Corvus is, too. And Amaya, I suppose, but only on a technicality. Did I tell you about how we met yet?” 

There’s a jingle of chains and the sound of Runaan getting into a more comfortable position. (Gren envied him. He wanted to sit down.) “No, I don’t think. Go on.” 

Gren beamed, and did. 

He’s not quite sure when everything went wrong. Probably when Viren came in. Nothing ever seemed to go  _ right  _ when Viren was there. He could also argue that everything had  _ already  _ been going wrong, since the beginning, given that the beginning was Gren and Runaan getting thrown in a dungeon.

Wherever it started, there was the fact that four weeks later, Gren’s alone except for a too-heavy bag of coins and a name to go on.  _ Ethari.  _

He’d found them on the battlefield, below the Storm Spire, and felt his heart drop out of his chest.  _ So Viren must have still had the coins, then, until he’d fallen-  _ Gren had looked and looked, after the guards (Bre and Jaden, those were their names- he’d resolved to be friends with them, after that, and had mostly been succeeding, except then they’d left to join Viren’s army- or stayed in it, he supposed, instead of deserting,) had freed him, but he hadn’t found them. 

He nervously opened the bag, hoping he was wrong. Runaan’s face looked up at him, silently pleading, as well as two others he didn’t know.

He felt  _ wrong,  _ just-  _ holding  _ them like this, like they were objects, really just coins instead of people,  _ souls-  _ he felt dizzy, and had to brace himself on the sharp cliff on the side of the Spire, signing ‘sorry’ with one hand, nails digging into his palm. 

He’d gone to the sky mage, Ibis, to see if he could fix it. 

“So, hypothetically, if my friend got trapped in a coin by Viren, well, probably my friend, it’s not like we ever said we were friends and he’s an elf so it was a bit awkward- anyway, how would I bring him back? Also, his body got lowkey set on fire, so that might be a problem.” 

“...What?” 

“Okay, nevermind-”

“No, ah… I don’t know that kind of magic. A Startouch mage would probably be best, because they deal in souls, but a Moonshadow would also work. Life and death, I suppose.” 

“His husband’s a pretty good mage,” Gren said.

Ibis ran his hand through his hair. “That should work, then. Who’s your hypothetical friend?” 

“Um, his name’s Runaan? And there’s two other elves I don’t know.” 

“Two others- okay,” he frowned. “I swear Rayla’s mentioned a Runaan, but I could be wrong.” 

Gren shrugged. “Probably.” His gaze flitted to his bag, where he’d put the coins. “I should, um. Go look. It’ll be good to tell him, anyway. Runaan’s husband.” 

“Right. And Gren?” 

“Yeah?” 

“Never ask me about something this weird again.” 

“Got it.” 

He’d asked around a bit, and now he was here. And there wasn’t anything _.  _ What was that about. 

He was so distracted wondering about that that he didn’t notice at first when the elf appeared.

\---

Ethari stepped out of the illusion, taking a moment to look around. It was always disconcerting, watching our home vanish behind you like it was a moon-octopus. 

The human they must have been talking about was standing near the middle of the illusion, right where Einye’s house would have been. He was startlingly pretty, with freckles dappled across his face like a Startouch elf.

Ethari coughed into his hand. The human flinched and spun around, offering Ethari a little wave once he could see him properly.

“Um, hi! Where’d you come from? Are you Ethari? I’m Gren.” 

Ethari dropped a half-joking bow. “Pleasure. And I am.” 

Gren smiled. “Perfect! I’ve been looking all over for you. Ah- I need your help.” He glanced away. “And I have some… bad news.” 

“That’s never good,” Ethari said, then paused. “Sort of says that in the name, doesn’t it?”  _ Wait, hang on-  _ “Is this about Runaan?” 

Gren tugged at his hair. “Um. Yes?” 

_ Okay, he’s just going to tell you that Runaan’s dead, that’s okay, well, no, it’s not, it’s fucking shitty, but you know that’s true, it’s not gonna be something worse-  _ “I think I know what it is, but tell me?” 

“You… know? How?” 

“I enchanted these metal flowers to tell me when… when he died. His sunk a few weeks ago.” 

Gren brightened. “Oh, so you’re a good mage then! The flower’s probably, like, floating halfway under the water or something, right?”

“Wait, what?” Ethari remembered a week ago, when he’d seen that faint flickering light under the surface. Could that have actually been Runaan’s flower? “Actually, can you start over? I think I might have messed up this whole situation.” 

“Okay, so when I was in Lord Viren’s dungeon-” 

“Why were  _ you  _ in the dungeon? You’re Katolian, human, and I can’t see you doing anything bad, ever.” Ethari felt like every time he seemed to get an handle on the situation, it slipped out from under him. “Oh, wait, is Viren that bitch that invaded Xadia last week?” 

“Don’t swear!” Gren admonished. “But, um, yeah. There was this whole mess before that other mess happened, and I guess I got in the way of his plans…” 

“That seems a bit harsh. Are you alright?” Ethari sat down on one of the tree roots, because the conversation seemed like it might take a while.

“I’m fine, really. But the important bit is- Runaan’s not dead. At least, I don’t think. Viren… did something to him. I can show you?” His hands flitted nervously around, signing bits of his sentence, trying to get something from his bag. “I mean, I could also tell you, because it’s kinda…” 

“Hang on, I can get it.” 

“Wait, don’t-” 

The bag of coins spilled out across the ground. 

Ethari didn’t process it at first. He saw what the coin looked like, but couldn’t piece it together to what it was. Then it caught up with him, and he was suddenly glad he was sitting down. 

“Is that- oh, Stars. Oh,  _ fuck.  _ Viren- he’s a dark mage, isn’t he? And those- the others- those are Rayla’s  _ fucking parents-”  _

“Can you-” 

“I don’t know? I think I might be able to reverse the spell, but I don’t know exactly- I’ll have to do lots of research, definitely, and I won’t be able to do it right away, which  _ sucks,  _ but… coins, right? I’m good with metal.” He traced his finger in a circle around Runaan’s coin. “I don’t want to  _ wait,  _ though, is he- is he okay in there? I mean, obviously not, that’s a stupid question, but…” 

“Um. Yes?” Gren tried. “I mean, no, there was a lot of screaming, but-” 

Ethari’s blood turned to ice.  _ “What?”  _

“Nevermind!” Gren smiled at him very unconvincingly. “Let’s just fix this, okay?” 

“Okay.”  _ I  _ have _ to fix this.  _ “What do you want to do? Like, it might take weeks, do you want me to tell you if-  _ when,  _ I mean, I figure it out, or…” 

_ All this time I thought he was dead, and he was stuck here, and I didn’t do anything about it.  _ It was better in some ways, he guessed, because now he knew that there was hope, a way for his love to come back to him, but Runaan… Gren had said there had been screaming, probably torture. (He was also  _ definitely lying  _ when he said he was fine, but Ethari could deal with that later.)  __ Runaan was  _ not  _ okay in there, and he didn’t know which would be better, Runaan not having to go through that or him being able to return to Ethari. Wanting the second was a bit selfish, really. 

Gren was still here. Right. Ethari refocused on what he was saying. 

“I, um, whatever you want? I’ll go, just… tell me, alright?” 

“Got it.” Ethari tried for a smile. “D’you want to come over at some point?” 

“Like, for tea?” 

“Yeah, sure. I want to get to know you. And I’ll show you how to get past the illusion.” 

“Oh, there’s an illusion? That… makes a lot of sense, actually. Were you just watching me wander around through your home-” 

Ethari laughed. “Maybe so. I’ll figure this out, alright?” 

Gren nodded and left, and Ethari got to work.

\---

Runaan didn’t know how long it had been. He’d started out trying to keep track of time, at first, counting off his pace in strict order, but he’d lost track, eventually. And he’d forgotten- to be stoic, to show no sign of being hurt. It  _ did  _ hurt, being in the coin, like he was drowning- no, like he’d drowned, already, and he just wasn’t allowed to die. He couldn’t  _ breathe.  _

He tried to calm down, to rationalize his thoughts and take in his surroundings. It was same as always, but nothing wrong with going over them. Practice. It wasn’t dark, exactly, but it wasn’t light, either. Everything had a sort of golden tinge to it, which must have been because of the coin- he thought it was gold. 

He didn’t know if he could fight, if he had to. There wasn’t air, and he was constantly feeling short on it, gasping breaths and coming up with nothing. 

If he concentrated, he thought he could feel the coin moving and tilting around. Or that could be him hallucinating, an illusion made up in his own head from the lack of anything to see. 

It had to have been at least six weeks, he thought. Was Rayla all right? Was Ethari all right? Did Rayla hate him, did Ethari think he had been killed, had the human boys hurt Rayla, was Ethari remembering to sleep- 

_ It doesn’t matter. I am already dead. That’s more true than ever, now.  _

Runaan was not a cheerful person.

The coin had been moving more than usual in the past two weeks. Now there was a sort of scraping on it,  _ too loud _ , making him wince and cover his ears, and it stopped, almost apologetically. 

Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t been able to hear any sounds, before, so that was new. There was tapping on the coin, a kind of Morse code, but it was too loud and it rang in his ears and he signed  _ stop  _ with the bit of Moonshadow sign that he knew. (It’s different than the human ones, changed for four fingered elves.) It stopped, and then there’s  _ shaking shaking shaking  _ like he’s never felt before, and he’s falling--

He came out of the coin gasping for breath, and he could  _ breathe,  _ and he sucked in as much air as he can until his chest stopped screaming at him. It’s too bright, and he closed his eyes tight, trying to block it out. He didn’t know where he was- it felt familiar, but he couldn’t- he couldn’t remember right. 

Someone was holding his hand, steadying him, and it was Ethari, but why was Ethari here, he  _ shouldn’t be here,  _ but this wasn’t Katolis, and it wasn’t the coin or the dungeon, it was the Silvergrove, their house-  _ what.  _

There was another voice, that sounded less familiar but more in place, wherever here was, because he didn’t believe that it was really their house, how could it be? He got stuck on trying to process the sound, and didn’t get the words.

Runaan realized that he probably looked like a mess, shaking with his hands over his ears, and at some point fallen to the ground. He made an effort to get up and show his usual image of perfection and uncaring, fixing his hair and trying to get his bearings. He  _ was  _ in his house,  _ how-  _

Ethari was standing next to him, hand around his shoulders and helping him up, and so that was alright. There was a human, and Runaan tensed up, but they didn’t attack. That was the other voice, he realized, hadn’t the human been with him in Viren’s dungeon? What was his name- Gren, that was it. 

“You’re okay,” Ethari said, like he didn’t believe it. 

Runaan managed a smile. “I promised you I would return your heart to you.”

\---

They’d done it.  _ They’d done it.  _ And Runaan was shivering and definitely not okay, but that was alright. They could heal, together, because he was  _ alive.  _ Gren shot him a smile, and Ethari found himself smiling back. 

“I apologize. I should have never doubted you.” 

**Author's Note:**

> comment if you liked!!


End file.
